This Day in Music Spotlight: The Man Who Turned Down The Beatles This Day in Music Spotlight: The Man Who Turned Down The Beatles January 1, 1962 01.01.2011 Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com . In his distinguished tenure at Decca Records, Dick Rowe signed an unbelievable roster of talent, including The Rolling Stones, The Moody Blues, The Animals, Them (featuring Van Morrison), The Zombies, Tom Jones, Small Faces, The Tornados, and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Unfortunately for Rowe and his label, he will always be known for the one band he let get away. The Beatles first came to Rowe’s attention via a young writer in Decca’s employ named Tony Barrow. Barrow hailed from the Liverpool area, but was a few years older than The Beatles. He had moved to London to take a job writing liner notes for the label, while still contributing to The Liverpool Echo on the side. When Brian Epstein signed The Beatles to work as their manager, he consulted Barrow for advice… and help.

While Barrow turned down his request to write about the band in his Echo column, he did promise to mention the group to Decca’s A&R department. Rowe was the head of that department. For Rowe, the request to consider this unknown Northern band put him in a slightly awkward position. He was hardly interested in The Beatles, whoever they were, but he knew that Epstein was a valued customer for Decca. His NEMS music store was a major retailer in the North and Epstein’s was a relationship Rowe could hardly afford to damage. And so, Rowe sent an assistant, Mike Smith, up to Liverpool to see what the fuss was all about. On Wednesday, December 13, Smith arrived in Liverpool and was met by Epstein, who took him to dinner. Following the meal, they went to the Cavern Club on Mathew Street, where the band would play their second set of the day (having earlier played for the lunchtime crowd). Appearing with Gerry and the Pacemakers and The Four Jays, The Beatles played their standard repertoire of R&B and rock ’n’ roll covers mixed with a dollop of originals.

Smith wasn’t blown away to the point of signing them on the spot, but he saw enough potential (and enthusiasm from the crowds… and Epstein) that he agreed to arrange a formal audition at Decca. The date was set for New Years Day, 1962. On New Year’s Eve, instead of going on a bender or playing to a raucous party crowd, The Beatles embarked on what they hoped would be the most important automobile ride of their lives. They piled all of their gear into road manager Neil Aspinall’s van and drove off in the freezing snow. Huddled together to stay warm, they hoped to arrive in The Smoke early enough to grab a drink and do a wee bit of merrymaking before turning in. Unfortunately, Aspinall got lost along the way and what should have been a four-to-five-hour trip turned into a 10-hour odyssey.

When the boys arrived, they were aching and cold and ill-humored to see, as John later recalled, “the drunks jumping into the Trafalgar Square fountain.” When they arrived at the studio in the morning with Epstein, who had traveled separately by train, they were peeved to find that Smith was late, having been a bit hung over from his own New Year’s celebration. Smith irritated them even more by insisting that they use the house amplifiers instead of their own, referring to their own gear as substandard. With all of this going on, the group gave (by their own admission) a less-than-stellar performance – certainly not poor, but not up to the show-stopping standard they’d set for themselves in the basements and bars of Hamburg and Liverpool. They blew through 15 songs in a little over an hour, getting more comfortable as they went along. The songs were: 1. “Like Dreamers Do” (Lennon-McCartney) 2. “Money (That’s What I Want)” (Bradford-Gordy; originally recorded by Barrett Strong) 3. “Till There Was You” (Willson; originally composed for the musical The Music Man) 4.

“The Sheik of Araby” (Smith-Wheeler-Snyder; an old vaudeville number turned rock ‘n’ roll by Joe Brown and The Bruvvers) 5. “To Know Her is to Love Her” (Spector; originally recorded with slightly different lyrics by Phil Spector’s Teddy Bears) 6. “Take Good Care of My Baby” (King-Goffin; made famous by Bobby Vee) 7. “Memphis, Tennessee” (Chuck Berry) 8. “Sure to Fall (In Love with You)” (Perkins-Claunch-Cantrell; Carl Perkins’ follow-up to “Blue Suede Shoes”) 9. “Hello Little Girl” (Lennon-McCartney) 10. “Three Cool Cats” (Lieber-Stoller; originally recorded by The Coasters) 11. “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” (Buddy Holly) 12. “Love of the Loved” (Lennon-McCartney) 13. “September in the Rain” (Warren; 1937 standard, originally performed by James Melton) 14.

“Besame Mucho” (Velázquez-Skylar; Mexican ballad) 15. “Searchin’” (Lieber-Stoller; originally recorded by The Coasters) Rowe and Smith consulted. They agreed that there was something there, but as with the December 13th show, they just weren’t blown away. They auditioned a local beat band, Brian Poole and The Tremeloes, the same day and agreed that, if they were to sign one, the local band from the outskirts of London would be the more logical choice. The reason Rowe (famously) gave to Epstein – when Epstein was finally able to corner him for an answer – was, “Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein.” Epstein, for his part, continued to press Decca, promising NEMS would buy 3,000 copies of any Beatles record. Rowe claimed this bargaining chip was never relayed to him. If it had been, Rowe claimed he would have signed The Beatles. As it was, Epstein at least walked away from the session with a good demo to take to other record companies.

Ultimately, the demo helped him get a foot in the door at EMI, where history awaited the Fab Four. Looking back on the Decca affair, one pauses to wonder just how different things would have turned out had The Beatles signed with Rowe. They might not have jettisoned Pete Best, as that was EMI producer George Martin’s idea. And of course, they wouldn’t have had Martin, who proved so crucial to the development and recording of the band’s songs. Martin pushed them to polish every tune as finely as possible. Tracks like “Please Please Me” would have been wildly different if not for his stewardship. Moreover, The Beatles themselves were not quite ready to be recording artists. Not yet. Getting knocked down a peg forced them to hone their craft and to push themselves even further as songwriters. A simple case in point is a comparison of the group’s original compositions presented to Decca in January 1962 versus those presented to EMI in June.

By June, the group had shed “Like Dreamers Do,” “Hello Little Girl” and “Love of the Loved” in favor of “Love Me Do” (written, to be fair, years before), “PS I Love You” and “Ask Me Why.” Hop on YouTube and give all of those tracks a listen. The latter collection is, if not light years ahead, still a very long walk ahead of the former. With six months to gig and write and eat, sleep and breathe music, the band was in much better shape to take on the world – or at least to take on George Martin – when they got their second shot. As for Rowe, who passed away in 1986 three days shy of his 75th birthday, he could take some solace in the band Beatle George Harrison suggested to him the following year, a group managed by a former Beatles publicist, Andrew Loog Oldham. But even with the feather of The Rolling Stones in his cap, Rowe will still always be remembered as the man who turned down The Beatles.

The man who rejected the Beatles | The Independent News The man who rejected the Beatles Exactly 50 years ago, Decca's Dick Rowe turned down the Fab Four, so heading an unenviable club of talent-spotters who passed up their biggest chance. But is it all an urban myth? A new book suggests so Sunday 12 February 2012 00:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Culture Decca’s Dick Rowe, left, turned down the Beatles Getty Images "Guitar groups are on their way out, Mr Epstein." With that airy dismissal of the Beatles, supposedly directed 50 years ago this month at the group's manager Brian Epstein, Dick Rowe of Decca made himself unwittingly but enduringly synonymous with catastrophic commercial misjudgements. He might be honorary president of an unenviable club that includes all the publishers who turned down a book about a boy wizard by a hopeful young writer called Joanne Rowling, and indeed William Orton, the president of the Western Union, who in 1876 decided not to pay $100,000 for Alexander Graham Bell's patent for the telephone, declaring the apparatus little more than a toy.

Two years later an anguished Orton admitted that he would consider the patent a bargain at $25m. There are many members of the misjudgement club, and not a few of them put their mistakes behind them. Rowe himself went on to sign the Rolling Stones, but only because the Beatles, having signed with the EMI subsidiary Parlophone, had demonstrated that guitar groups were very much in. Rowe was Decca's senior A&R man, its talent-spotter, and whether he was actually responsible for those famously non-prescient words, we'll never know. They were certainly quoted by Epstein, in his 1964 autobiography A Cellarful of Noise. But Rowe went to his grave in 1986 denying it. Of course, to invoke another sensation of the early 1960s, the Profumo affair, well, he would, wouldn't he? The story will be clarified by Mark Lewisohn, the British author who probably knows more about the Beatles than anyone alive, including Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, in the forthcoming first volume of his long-awaited three-part history of the group. Lewisohn points out that in some respects it was the Beatles who turned down Decca.

Rowe had offered to press their records, but at their expense, not Decca's. And it was probably 50 years ago today, to misquote "Sergeant Pepper", that Rowe received Epstein's rejection of that proposal, in a letter dated Saturday, 10 February 1962. The Beatles had auditioned for Decca. They performed 15 songs but didn't give a particularly good account of themselves. George Martin, their producer at Parlophone, told Lewisohn that, on the basis of those demos, he would have turned them down, too. Despite that, and despite the fact that Rowe wasn't even present at the audition, his is the name generally besmirched in the story. And indeed it was Rowe who told his more junior colleague Mike Smith to choose between the Beatles and another group auditioned by Decca around the same time, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. Smith chose to offer a recording contract to the Tremeloes, not least because they hailed from Dagenham and it seemed more convenient for a London record label to have them on the books than a group from Liverpool. Like the music industry, the publishing industry overflows with such tales.

It was doubtless of little consolation at the time, but JK Rowling was in illustrious company when 15 publishers rejected Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. "The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the 'curiosity' level," was one publisher's brusque assessment of The Diary of Anne Frank. More than a dozen others reached a similar conclusion about a book that has now been translated into more than 60 languages, with more than 30 million copies sold. And Stephen King's novels haven't done badly, either, after his first, Carrie, was pompously turned down with the words: "We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell." It was old William Orton of Western Union, though, who surely dropped the biggest clanger of all. The Bell clanger, in fact. "After careful consideration," he wrote to the inventor, "while it is a very interesting novelty, we have come to the conclusion that it has no commercial possibilities." A century later, the San Francisco Chronicle took a similar view of articles about the Watergate break-in by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

The Washington Post was syndicating their investigations, but the Chronicle's owner, Charles Thieriot, ruled that "there will be no West Coast interest in the story". Instead, Woodward and Bernstein's increasingly explosive reports were carried by the rival San Francisco Examiner. Sometimes, selling syndication rights is as disastrous as refusing to buy them. Executives at 20th Century Fox decided to sell to local TV stations the right to broadcast their hit show M*A*S*H, but not for another four years. They calculated that its popularity would wane. It didn't. M*A*S*H made a fortune for the local stations, vastly more than the $25m Fox got for the rights in the first place. And just to redress the American tilt of these anecdotes, let me conclude with the story of a young script-reader for Central Television, who in the mid-1980s advised his superiors not "to touch with a bargepole" a script for a new detective drama. The writer was a guy called Anthony Minghella. The drama turned out to be Inspector Morse. The hapless script-reader was me. "I Should Have Known Better", as a well-known guitar group once sang.

More about: 1 January 1962: The Beatles audition for Decca Records | The Beatles Bible The Beatles audition for Decca Records The Beatles audition for Decca Records Monday 1 January 1962 Studio 19 Comments The Beatles' famous audition for Decca Records took place in London on New Year's Day in 1962. The session followed the label's A&R representative Mike Smith's attendance at a Cavern performance on 13 December 1961 . The Beatles' performance that night hadn't been strong enough to secure them a record deal, but the label was willing to offer them a session in their studios at 165 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, London. The group – John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Pete Best – travelled down from Liverpool with driver and roadie Neil Aspinall . Beset by snowstorms, the party eventually arrived just in time for the 11am audition. Brian Epstein had travelled separately on train. The group was annoyed that Smith turned up late, having spent the night before seeing in the new year.

Smith further unnerved them by insisting they use Decca's amplifiers, having judged The Beatles' own gear to be substandard. The Beatles recorded 15 songs altogether. The likely order was: Searchin' Three of the songs – Like Dreamers Do, Hello Little Girl and Love Of The Loved – were Lennon-McCartney originals. It is likely that the majority of songs were recorded in a single take without overdubs; the entire session, which began at 11am, took roughly an hour. Of the Decca recordings, five songs – Searchin', Three Cool Cats, The Sheik Of Araby, Like Dreamers Do and Hello Little Girl – appeared on the Anthology 1 collection in 1995. The rest have been widely available on bootleg since 1977. Although nerves meant The Beatles didn't perform at their best, all four members and Brian Epstein were confident that the session would inevitably lead to a contract with Decca. The label, meanwhile, was erring towards Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, who had also auditioned that day. As head of A&R Dick Rowe later remembered: I told Mike he'd have to decide between them.

It was up to him – The Beatles or Brian Poole and the Tremeoloes. He said, 'They're both good, but one's a local group, the other comes from Liverpool.' We decided it was better to take the local group. We could work with them more easily and stay closer in touch as they came from Dagenham. Dick Rowe The official reason given, meanwhile, was that "guitar groups are on the way out, Mr Epstein". These words would become infamous, and Dick Rowe later became known as "the man who turned down The Beatles". He did, however, sign The Rolling Stones on the recommendation of George Harrison. Brian Epstein didn't take rejection lying down. He travelled back to London for further meetings with Decca, even promising their sales team that he'd buy 3,000 copies of any Beatles single they released. Had Dick Rowe been informed of this, history could have been quite different. I was never told about that at the time. The way economics were in the record business then, if we'd been sure of selling 3,000 copies, we'd have been forced to record them, whatever sort of group they were.

Dick Rowe However, the Decca audition tapes did prove fortunate for The Beatles. Had they signed to Decca, their career may never have involved Ringo Starr , who joined the group only after George Martin expressed concerns about Pete Best's drumming. Furthermore, the audition gave Epstein some good-quality recordings of the group, on reel-to-reel, enabling him to take them around the remaining London labels. The manager of the HMV record store on London's Oxford Street suggested that Epstein transfer the recordings from reel-to-reel to disc, to enable them to be more easily played. Epstein agreed, and immediately took the tapes to a studio and pressing plant situated above the store. Engineer Jim Foy was impressed with the recordings. When Epstein told him three of the songs were original Lennon-McCartney compositions, Foy contacted Sid Coleman, of music publishers Ardmore & Beechwood (a subsidiary of EMI), who offered Epstein a publishing deal. Epstein's priority was to get the group signed, and so Coleman arranged a meeting between The Beatles' manager and George Martin, the A&R head at Parlophone. Upon hearing the Decca recordings, Martin was sufficiently interested to offer The Beatles an audition at Abbey Road.

Joseph Brush Thursday 24 September 2009 I have a three-record box set entitled The Beatles. Two records are referred to as GEMA (HIS 10982) and are listed as Beatles Live (Hamburg) while the third record is entitled Silver Beatles and is referred to as STEMRA (HIS 11182) and contains 12 of the 15 Decca Audition songs. Two of the three songs mentioned above (Take Good Care Of My Baby and September In The Rain) are contained on this third record of the set. All three of the Lennon-McCartney Decca recorded originals are omitted from this collection. All of the labels on the records contain commercial quality printing and facing with correct spelling and contain historical info as well. The white box that contains the records is commercial quality as well. If this is a bootleg, it’s a pretty damm good one. It was purchased by me through Reader’s Digest many moons ago. Reply Jim Sunday 21 March 2010 Joseph–I have the same box set. I don’t remember where I bought it. I don’t think it’s a legitimate release.

Pete Best was involved in the release of a Silver Beatles album (on Backstreet Records) which also contained the Decca recordings. Paul and George tried very hard to keep the Star Club tape from getting out. They managed to limit its release pretty well, but of course once something’s out there, you can’t control the bootleggers. mr. Sun king coming together Sunday 26 September 2010 There are 2 types of beatles album The EMI/Apple albums and the non official (My Bonnie) albums Reply shawn dean Sunday 25 March 2012 this may sound crazy, but i have a reel to reel of” to know her” it is a one sided, studio quality version, once verified to be studio quality by the cbc in edmonton alta canada. my father was a recording artist in vancouver canada in the late sixties early seventies, he somehowe aquired this tape. my mother ended up with it in 1970 and still has it to this day. how can this be? Reply Bill Thursday 20 March 2014 There’s something about the Decca sessions that always puzzled me until recently.

I wondered for years (decades, actually) why the group would go and do a serious audition like this on a holiday? Well, I just recently found out that New Year’s was not a holiday back in the early ’60s in Great Britain, just another regular work day. Being from the US, I didn’t know that. Problem solved! Another thing, does the Tremeloes’ audition tape from that day still exist, and if so, has anyone here heard it? I’d love to be able to compare the two groups’ talents, especially at this stage in their careers. I know that it’s always been said that Decca’s choice was based more on logistics & economics (due to the fact that The Tremeloes were local & The Beatles weren’t), but if I could hear both auditions, it would put the matter to rest once & for all. Also, why hasn’t the complete Decca audition been legally released by now?

I’m pretty sure that it was originally owned by the Epstein family (since Brian paid for the session himself), but obviously, the legal hurdles have been overcome since 1/3 of the audition has been released on “Anthology I”… C’mon, let’s get the show on the road! Reply Ross Megson Wednesday 9 July 2014 I have just received a copy of Sure To Fall b/w Money on 7″ blue vinyl with a very new p/c on a label called Deccagone. It also says its a promo.Im sure this is a Pirate record. Im sickened that people are out there conning all us record lovers by passing this off as the genuine article.Got an AC/DC Pirate 7″ last year and im wondering if its been churned out by the same racketeers.I would mind having a record pressing machine of my own but I sure wouldn’t sell them fraudulently. Margaret & Paul Sunday 16 November 2014 How do I authenticate if I have a reel to reel unreleased Beatles demo?

Reply Barry Smith Wednesday 3 June 2015 I remember the flood of albums that were released in the early 80s featuring the Decca audition. They were usually budget albums, found in the bargain bins of K-Mart and Sears stores. In 1982, I picked up “The Complete Silver Beatles” (which was on the AudioFidelity label) at Filene’s Basement in Manhasset, New York. It featured all of the audition songs except for the three Lennon/ McCartney originals. The legitimacy of the LP did not phase me a bit. In fact, I loved the record and played it constantly. The silver album cover was cool, and there were insightful liner notes on the back. My favorite tracks were “Three Cool Cats” “Searchin” “September In the Rain” and “Crying Waiting Hoping.” Reply Bill Tuesday 7 July 2015 A few things about the post-Decca audition/pre-EMI signing (Jan-Jun ’62) puzzle me. George Martin has stated that one of the songs that Brian Epstein played him was “Your Feet’s Too Big”, which is not on the Decca tape.

The only known Beatles recording of that song is from the Dec ’62 Star-Club gigs, which is not the recording George is referring to. If George’s memory is correct, that means 1 of 2 things… Either there’s more to the Decca audition than the 15 songs we know of, or George heard an audition tape that we currently know nothing about. That brings up another thing. Why do we automatically assume that the Decca audition is the only one that exists? John Lennon said, “We made tapes for Decca and Pye, but didn’t actually go to Pye”. Were the tapes submitted to Pye from the Decca session, or were they from something else? Also, keep in mind that the boys were doing their earliest sessions for the BBC during this time. Some of those songs never made it to actual broadcast. Couldn’t they be used to submit to record companies as demos also? It’s a very good possibility that Brian Epstein had more recordings in his briefcase than just the Decca ones while he was making the rounds in London.

Tantalizing thoughts… YS Short Tie Girl Tuesday 7 July 2015 I know they didn’t pass the audition, but I really like what they did. The Record Company That Rejected The Beatles - Neatorama Neatorama • 5 Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen . Visit Eddie at his website . It was New Year's Eve 1961. A quartet of very young and very hopeful rock musicians who called themselves the Beatles stuffed themselves into the van of their road manager, Neil Aspinall. The four Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and drummer Pete Best, were naively confident. A young assistant A&R man from Decca Records named Mike Smith had seen the boys perform at their local Liverpool haunt, the Cavern Club, and was quite impressed, perhaps more so by the enthusiastic crowd reaction than the music itself. Based on this live performance, Smith informed the boys' manager, Brian Epstein, that he'd allow the band to audition for him and his boss, senior A&R man Dick Rowe, at Decca Studios in London.

The audition date was set for New Year's Day, January 1, 1962. It was a freezing, snowy day as the boys crowded into Aspinall's cramped van. The journey to London would have normally taken four to five hours, but as luck would have it, their driver got lost and ten hours were consumed. The boys huddled close together inside the van to combat the freezing cold. They finally arrived in London around 10PM, in time, as John Lennon recalled, "to see the drunks jumping into the Trafalgar Square fountain." According to Pete Best, instead of wisely resting up for the biggest audition of their lives, the Beatles indulged themselves and did a good bit of New Year's Eve drinking. New Year's Day, they trooped into the Decca recording studios at around 11AM and were joined by Epstein, who had traveled to London by train to be at the audition. Mike Smith arrived a bit late and was admittedly a bit hungover from the previous night's festivities. To the boys' dismay, he testily informed the Beatles that their own amps were substandard and they would have to use the studio's equipment instead. The recording session lasted about one hour.

At Epstein's insistence, they sang fifteen songs, a mixture of old rock standards, show tunes, and a few novelty songs. Just three original Lennon-McCartney songs were included: "Love of the Loved," "Hello Little Girl," and "Like Dreamers Do." The boys' nervousness was evident, although they became more confident as the minutes passed. Paul remembered being scared of "the red light" that kept flashing on in the room. Also, strangely, John Lennon, who was to be the dominant singer on the early Beatles records, only sang lead on one or two of the songs. Paul took command, and George took the lead on several of the songs, while John took a back seat that day. Worst of all was drummer Pete Best, whose drumming for the audition was flat, heavy, and plodding. It wasn't a "great" audition, but after it ended, everyone seemed happy enough, as Mike Smith informed the young hopefuls that he "saw no problems" and that he'd let them know his decision "in a few weeks." Brian Epstein left the audition believing the contract was as good as signed.

Before their horrendous, cold, snowy journey back to Liverpool, he took the boys to a restaurant in Swiss Cottage and allowed them to order wine. After their return to Liverpool, the Beatles resumed their usual schedule of playing the clubs, while dreaming of becoming major Decca recording stars in the near future. After nervously waiting for a happy verdict for several weeks, Brian Epstein finally got through on the phone to Decca Records to A&R man Dick Rowe. The words from Rowe must have hit him in the face like a bucket of cold water. "Groups with guitars are on the way out," Rowe informed him, bluntly and unsympathetically. These words were to become one of the most infamous quotes in the history of show business. After the initial shock, supposedly, Rowe continued by saying that "the Beatles have no future in show business" and condescendingly advised Epstein that, "You have a good record business down there, Mr.

Epstein, why don't you go back to that?" Epstein, still shell-shocked, told Rowe, "You must be out of your mind!" and told him his boys were someday "going to be bigger than Elvis Presley." Rowe, no doubt, suppressed his laughter and may have even rolled his eyes as the conversation ended. And thus, Dick Rowe was cemented in music history as "the man who turned down the Beatles." A few short months later, the Beatles were signed by a subsidiary of EMI called Parlophone. They were to become the most popular group in the world and would go on to sell hundreds of millions of records and albums around the world. And that, as they say, was history. But Dick Rowe (1921-1986) was to go to his grave denying his epithet. According to Rowe, it was actually Mike Smith who gave the Beatles the thumbs-down. That same New Year's Day of 1962, another fledgling band, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, had also auditioned at Decca. Rowe claimed, "I told Mike he'd have to decide between them.

It was up to him -the Beatles or Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. He said, 'They're both good, but one's a local group, the other comes from Liverpool.' We decided it was better to take the local group. We could work with them more easily and stay closer in touch, as they came from Dagenham." Poor Dick Rowe. After the fateful rejection of the Fab Four, he was actually to sign The Rolling Stones (based on a recommendation by George Harrison), The Animals, The Moody Blues, The Zombies, Then (featuring Van Morrison), The Small Faces, and Tom Jones. Even the Beatles' later producer at EMI, George Martin, was to come to Rowe's defense and state that he would have turned down the Beatles on the basis of the mediocre Decca audition tapes. Even after the rejection, Brian Epstein kept trying, negotiating with Decca, and even offering to buy 3,000 copies of any record the Beatles made. Rowe claimed he was not informed of this offer and had he known, he would definitely have signed the group.

But as they say, "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, wouldn't we all have a merry Christmas." And the Beatles -how did they feel about Dick Rowe? George Harrison's recommendation of the Rolling Stones to Rowe would seem to indicate no hard feelings, at least on his part. But after their success, John Lennon was listening as someone spoke of the Beatles' Decca rejection, and someone said that "Dick Rowe must be kicking himself now." Lennon replied, "I hope he kicks himself to death." And Mike Smith didn't get completely off the hook, either. He remembered seeing the Beatles in London after they became famous. In true Liverpool fashion, the boys stood on the pavement and gave him a two-fingered salute . 7 Common Misconceptions About the Beatles and the Stones 7 Common Misconceptions About the Beatles and the Stones Yahoo Music Pin it Share In the 1960s, the two biggest bands in the world — the lovable Beatles and the bad-boy Rolling Stones—waged an epic battle.

"The Beatles want to hold your hand," wrote Tom Wolfe, "but the Stones want to burn down your town." Both groups liked to maintain that they weren't really "rivals"— that was just a media myth, they politely said—but on both sides of the Atlantic, they plainly competed for commercial success and aesthetic credibility. In Beatles Vs. Stones (Simon & Schuster, 2013), John McMillian gets to the truth behind the ultimate rock 'n' roll debate. ---------- •The Beatles and the Stones weren't really "rivals" – that was just a media myth, concocted by sensationalizing journalists and naïve teenyboppers. In fact, the Beatles and the Stones were good friends. It would be far more accurate to say that during most of the '60s, the Beatles and the Stones were both friends and rivals. They clearly struck up a rapport, but that never stopped them from trying to outperform each other whenever and however they could. And as most people understand, emulous competition rarely nurtures a friendship; more often it breeds anxiety, suspicion, and envy. •OK, but the Beatles and the Stones never fueled the rivalry narrative themselves; they wanted nothing to do with all that silliness!

They were always "above the fray." Not always. It is true that members of both bands frequently maintained that they were friends, and that the idea of a "rivalry" was invented on press row. But sometimes the Beatles and the Stones simply could not help but act like rival bands. In October 1963, John Lennon fulminated in Melody Maker magazine about groups that appeared to be "copying" the Beatles. He seemed particularly aggrieved at a newer, London-based rhythm & blues group, which was made up at least partly of students, whose members refused to attribute their hairstyles to the Beatles' influence. Instead, they disingenuously maintained that they "just happen to have long hair." Only one group fit the bill exactly: The Rolling Stones. And when the Rolling Stones came to the United States for the first time, in May 1964, they enlisted a London-based PR firm to create the impression that they were rival with the Beatles. "Stones Set to Invade," the press release said.

"In the tracks of the Beatles, a second wave of sheep-dog looking, angry-acting, guitar-playing Britons is on the way....Of the Rolling Stones, one detractor has said, 'They are dirtier, streakier and more disheveled than the Beatles, and in some places they are more popular than the Beatles.'" •Ah! Well that's because the Rolling Stones' young and savvy manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, immediately recognized that his group would be more successful if they styled themselves as the anti-Beatles. So he toughened up their image, and he encouraged the Stones dress however they liked. In fact, that idea came a bit later, and it was the opposite of what Oldham originally had in mind. One of his first moves, after he signed a managerial contract with the Stones, was to take them on a Carnaby Street shopping spree and buy them sets of matching outfits. Numerous early photos of the Stones show them looking every bit as amiable, dainty, and fashionable as the Liverpool groups that were currently in vogue. •I see. At first, the Stones seemed like natural counterparts to the Beatles, not rivals.

That's probably why Decca's A&R representative, Dick Rowe (aka "The Man Who Turned Down the Beatles") raced off to sign the Stones just as soon he'd heard about them, from George Harrison. It is true that when George Harrison and Dick Rowe were seated near each other at the jury table of a Liverpool talent contest, George recommended that Rowe check out the Stones. But Rowe did not, in fact, rush back to London to sign them (as has often been reported). He waited a few days, then he phoned the Stones' managers, and then he made an appointment to see them perform. And although Rowe was impressed by the avid response of the groups' fans, at first he thought the Stones might be too raw and unpolished to warrant a recording contract. After Rowe took the Stones' audition tapes to his boss, Sir Edward Lewis, he was surprised to discover hat Lewis wanted to sign the Stones right away. Read More • The Stones were always copying the Beatles. For instance, shortly after the Beatles came out with "Yesterday," the Stones wrote "As Tears Go By." Both songs were melancholy acoustic ballads, featuring only a vocalist, a quietly strummed guitar, and a string arrangement.

The Beatles released "Yesterday" in August 1965, and about four months later, the Stones came out with the similar sounding "As Tears Go By." But Mick Jagger and Keith Richards actually wrote "As Tears Go By" about a year-and-a-half before the Beatles put out "Yesterday." They didn't record it at the time, however, because they thought it didn't suit their image. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that as the Beatles grew more ambitious and creatively daring in the mid-'60s, the Stones followed their lead. But then again, so did most of the era's pop and rock groups. •OK, but what about the Stones' album Their Satanic Majesties Request? Wasn't that obviously an attempt to copy the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's? Perhaps. The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the summer of 1967, and about six months later, the Stones came out with a psychedelic album of their own, which was widely panned as ersatz Beatles. But it bears remembering that Mick Jagger seemed genuinely interested in the hippie counterculture (perhaps even more so than the Beatles).

He studied astrology and the I Ching, and his reading diet was devoted to books about "fairies, goblins, and elves." For a time, he even kept a Native American teepee inside the Stones' Maddox Street office, into which he would occasionally go and sit for peaceful contemplation. During the Summer of Love, Mick joined the Beatles in North Wales for a seminar in spiritual enlightenment led by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. •If John Lennon had not been assassinated, the Beatles would probably have gotten back together. They would have been jealous of all the success that the Rolling Stones continued to enjoy, even after they'd grown older. Of course it is impossible to say. But in one of his last interviews, John Lennon ridiculed the idea that grown men should even want to carry on in a rock 'n' roll group. It struck him as a pathetic thing to do. He also lashed out against fans that were still clamoring for a Beatles reunion. "You know, they're congratulating the Stones on being together [so long]," Lennon remarked. "Whoooopee!...It's all right when you're 16, 17, 18 to have male companions and idols, OK?

It's tribal and a gang and it's fine. But when it continues and you're still doing it when you're 40, that means you're still 16 in the head." Reblog The Day the Rolling Stones Signed to Decca Records The Day the Rolling Stones Signed to Decca Records By Dave Swanson May 5, 2013 11:01 AM REDDIT Keystone Features/Hulton Archive, Getty Images Even though Dick Rowe may not be familiar to most music fans, his impact on rock history is large. In 1962, he was the head of A&R at Decca Records, and the man who infamously turned down signing a promising new group called the Beatles to his label. While lightening usually doesn’t strike twice, Rowe was not about to let this blunder happen again. On a recommendation by none other than George Harrison , Rowe ventured out to catch another promising new act called the Rolling Stones . On May 5, 1963, Rowe caught the band at the Crawdaddy Club in London; within the week, the band was signed to the label. The Stones were putting all their pieces in place.

On May 1, Brian Jones signed a management contract among the band, Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton’s new company, Impact Sound. Next stop: image makeover. “We went with [Oldham] on the morning of May 4, 1963, to Carnaby Street,” recalled Stones bassist Bill Wyman in his Stone Alone autobiography. “He bought us all these tight black jeans, black roll-neck sweaters and highly fashionable Anello & Davide black Spanish boots with Cuban heels.” The band played the Crawdaddy the following night, caught the attention of Rowe and the rest is history. Their debut single, a raw version of the Chuck Berry rocker “Come On,” was issued just a month later. ‘”The Beatles, who recommended the Stones to Decca, may well live to rue the day,” Don Nicholl prophetically wrote in the weekly music paper Disc.

“This group could be challenging them for top places in the immediate future.” Rolling Stones Live Albums Ranked Worst to Best Image of The Beatles' audition tape that was rejected has been discovered after 50 years | Daily Mail Online comments The Beatles’ audition tape that was infamously rejected by a record company boss - because he thought guitar groups were ‘on the way out’ - has been discovered after 50 years. The fledgling group were also told ‘they had no future in showbusiness’ following the 1962 audition, during which they recorded a ten-track demo tape. The decision by a Decca Records’ executive still stands as one of the worst judgement calls made in music history. Scroll down for video Hidden gem: The original Beatles audition tape that was rejected by a record company boss has been discovered after 50 years Within months John, Paul, George and original drummer Pete Best had signed with EMI and went on to become the greatest band of all time. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Now the original safety master tape the group recorded at Decca’s London studios on New Year’s Day 1962 has come to public light for the first time.

It is thought the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein held on to the tape he had paid to make, and later gave it to an executive associated with EMI. Get back: The legendary recording was rejected by Decca records in 1962 by music executive Dick Rowe He sold it in 2002 to a prolific buyer of music memorabilia, who is now selling it at auction with a pre-sale estimate of £30,000. The recording has never been officially released and the sound quality on it is said to be pristine. At the time of the recording Epstein had visited several record companies with the hope of securing a contract for the Beatles - then called the Silver Beatles. On New Year’s Eve 1961 the band were driven from Liverpool to London but ended up taking 10 hours to get there as the driver got lost. The following day they were auditioned by Decca producer Tony Meehan. Big mistake: The Fab Four were swiftly signed up by EMI after Dick turned them down and they became a global phenomenon Epstein selected the material and chose ten cover songs the Beatles had previously performed in various clubs.

But the band failed to impress Decca executive Dick Rowe who turned them down, believing ‘guitar groups are on the way out.’ The ten tracks on the 12-inch audio tape include Money (That’s What I Want), Like Dreamers Do, Take Good Care Of My Baby, Three Cool Cats, Love Of The Loved, Memphis and Crying Waiting Hoping. A handwritten note stuck on the cover for the tape lists the 10 songs and their length. There is also a photo negative of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Pete Best that they took with them to the audition, and would have been used as the album cover had they won the contract. In order: The track list for the ten songs was recorded in London on New Year's Day Ted Owen, of auctioneers the Fame Bureau, which is now selling the tape, said: 'This has never officially been released. 'It is totally unique and the sound quality is crystal clear. There are bootlegs of the recording out there but nobody has ever heard the original in its entirety. 'The tape went to a Capitol Records executive after the Beatles signed with EMI.

He sold it to the current owner who was one of the top buyers for Hard Rock Cafe but it was for his own personal collection.' He added: 'We have spoken to various experts and this is the best-quality recording of this session there is given that it is the master copy. The original crew: From left, John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Pete Best, before Ringo joined the band 'The songs on it are all covers from mainly American artists and the Beatles actually sound American in a lot of the songs. 'They are copying the American style, the style of artists like Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. 'Those were the days of Rock and Roll and everybody who was trying to make a name for themselves were trying to replicate that style. 'They were hoping that by doing that they would get a record deal.But they were turned down, which is pretty ironic when you look at what happened after. 'Listening to it now I would say they were as good as anything around at that time and if it was me I would have given them a record deal.

Global fame: The boys from Liverpool, pictured in 1964, went on to become the biggest band of all time 'Whoever did say no must have been looking at other bands at the time, such as The Searchers and Freddie and the Dreamers, and didn’t think there was room for the Beatles. 'EMI took them in the end and the rest is history. After that they were massive.' Instead of the Beatles, Decca Records signed up the Tremeloes, who auditioned the same day. They did later go on to sign the Rolling Stones. Within weeks after signing with EMI, it was decided to replace drummer Pete Best with Ringo Star. Bill Heckle, the co-owner of The Cavern Club in Liverpool, said: “This was always a big, big deal for Beatles fans. 'It was a great album. It was the one that failed the audition but it is such a historical document. 'It is a great reminder forever of what Decca missed out on. Back in 1971 I traded a copy of Please Please Me signed by Paul McCartney to get my hands on a bootleg copy of the Decca tape.

'For any Beatles fan, the Decca audition is very important.' The tape will be offered for sale at the Fame Bureau auction in London’s Mayfair on 27 November.

Question: Which recording company turned down the Beatles but signed the Rolling Stones?
Answer: DECCA